BEIJING — A young, healthy man from Wuhan and a person living 1,500 miles from the epicenter of the coronavirus are among the latest victims of the outbreak, which has incited fear and anger across China as the important Spring Festival gets underway.
Reports of eight new deaths from the pneumonia-like virus, taking the total to 26, came as authorities enforced a lockdown across large parts of the province of Hubei, population 59 million. But they also came as the medical system clearly struggled to cope with the outbreak, with reports of crowded hospitals, stressed doctors and dwindling supplies.
Adding to the stress, Friday marked the official start of the Spring Festival, when China celebrates the arrival of the new lunar year. Authorities around the country, including in the capital, Beijing, have canceled the temple fairs and festivals that accompany the holiday to avoid having large public gatherings where the airborne virus could spread.
“The public should not gather during the Spring Festival and try stay at home as much as possible to protect themselves,” Gao Fu, a member of the expert group of the National Health and Health Commission and director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said Friday.
He encouraged everyone to wear masks, and photos from train stations and airports across the country showed people with their mouths and noses covered.
The Beijing Capital International Airport was unusually empty on Friday, with almost all passengers wearing masks. The Beijing city government and Shanghai local authorities have also urged residents returning to areas affected by the virus, or who have been in contact with suspected cases, to stay at home or in a centralized quarantine area for 14 days to contain the spread.
All ride-hailing services in Wuhan were cut off from midday Friday in attempt to stop transmission of the virus, and only half of taxis are allowed on the road every day, alternating between tags ending in odd and even numbers
China Southern, the country’s biggest airline, had already canceled all flights in and out of Wuhan airport on Thursday. The other two main carriers, Air China and China Eastern, said they would cancel all Wuhan flights from Friday to at least Feb. 8.
Authorities are taking extreme measures to stop the large public gatherings that are a hallmark of the Spring Festival, which is often the only time of year that families can come together, much like Thanksgiving in the United States.
New year festivals and temple fairs around the country have been canceled, and the Forbidden City in Beijing, which can admit 80,000 people a day and was already entirely sold out for the holiday, has been closed until further notice.
Production companies have postponed the release of seven blockbuster films that were to be released over the holiday, prompting Chinese
cinema companies to close the country’s 70,000 movie theaters.
Schools in Hubei province, due to begin the spring semester after the holiday, will not open their doors as planned but will wait for further guidance from health authorities. And the Education Ministry instructed universities around China to delay their opening dates if necessary.
